Surgical sutures are well known in the art. Surgical sutures are typically woven from conventional, biocompatible materials. Although sutures may be made from natural materials such as silk and “gut”, sutures are primarily made from synthetic polymers such as polyesters, lactides, glycolides, polyolefins, caprolactones, polyolefins, and the like including copolymers. Surgical sutures are typically used with conventional surgical needles pre-attached to one or both ends. A surgical suture having a surgical needle attached to one end is commonly referred to as a single armed suture, while a suture having a surgical needle attached to both ends is commonly referred to as a double armed suture. A surgical needle is typically a curved or partially curved elongated member having a distal piercing point or tip and a proximal mounting end. The distal end may also have cutting edges to assist in penetration through tissue. Surgical needles are typically constructed from biocompatible materials, in particular metals, including stainless steels. The mounting end of a surgical needles may have a drilled bore hole for receiving the suture end, or a channel may be formed in the distal end of the needle for receiving the suture end. In either case, the suture end is mechanically secured in the bore hole or channel in a conventional manner, for example, by mechanically swaging or compressing a section of the proximal end about the suture. It is also known to use sutures without surgical needles attached for certain surgical procedures such as ligating. For certain types of surgical procedures, for example, heart valve fixation, pledget members may be mounted to the surgical sutures to assist in preventing the sutures from cutting through or damaging tissue.
Packages and packaging for surgical sutures and needles are critical in providing an undamaged, sterile needle to the surgeon during a surgical procedure. There are a variety of known suture packages that can be used to package surgical sutures and needles. One type of package is a folder package. Such packages typically have an array of flaps and panels that are folded about a suture or a plurality of sutures in order to secure the suture in the folder. Such folders typically have conventional needle parks mounted to a panel for receiving and retaining surgical needles, for example, a foam strip with slits. Folder packages protect sutures during handling and shipping, and also provide for ease of sterilization by allowing the penetration of sterilant gases to the sutures. Suture tray packages have also been developed. The suture tray packages are typically molded structures having tracks for receiving sutures. A needle park structure may be molded into the tray. The tray packages have a number of advantages over the folder packages. It is known that many sutures can kink or take a set when loaded into a folder package. This is disadvantageous to both the surgeon and the patient. Tray packages tend to eliminate such kinking. Another advantage of tray packages is that they may be used with high speed machinery in automated loading and packaging processes. And yet another advantage is the cost of manufacturing tray packages. A further advantage is ease of dispensing the sutures. During a critical surgical procedure, such as a heart valve replacement or coronary artery bypass graft procedure, a number or sutures are required by the surgeon to successfully complete the procedure. Time is of the essence since it is in the patient's best interest to complete the procedure in the shortest possible amount of time to avoid complications. Tray and folder packages have been developed which may contain a quantity of sutures, which are necessary to complete the procedure. Dispensing is critical to a successful procedure, and tray packages have been developed which provide for quick dispensing without tangling. It is known that tangling can be an issue with folder packages that contain multiple sutures. However, loading multiple sutures into a tray or folder package may result in certain disadvantages.
Although the tray packages known in the art are useful, there is a constant search in this art for new packages having novel and improved qualities, features and properties that protect sutures and facilitate dispensing during a surgical procedure.